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Giada De Laurentiis Book Signing

Giada De Laurentiis came to Philadelphia’s Williams-Sonoma at The Bellevue for a book signing yesterday. Her latest book, Giada At Home: Family Recipes From Italy and California, hit shelves this week right in time for Easter.

I have a lot of friends getting married this year, and a lot of bridal showers to attend. Last week I headed to Williams-Sonoma to put together some nice gifts for those friends, and what did I see? Heaven. Beautiful signs were posted everywhere announcing Giada’s book signing, and I knew I had to go! I was so excited I immediately wrote about it on uwishunu.com (your online resource to an insider’s look at the Philadelphia scene) and made my plans to come.

Williams-Sonoma is one of those “time suck” stores. You walk in expecting to spend 5 minutes but end up there for hours of fun. Yesterday, the store was bustling with hundreds of women and men exciting to meet Giada and have their cookbooks signed.

I arrived around 4:20 PM expecting the store to still be quite empty, but in fact there were at least 100 people in line ahead of me! Williams-Sonoma did a great job of keeping us all entertained with some delicious snacks. We even got to sample Giada’s pea pesto crostini (page 25 in the book). Yes, it is delicious!

Giada De Laurentiis is really special to me because it is her show, Everyday Italian, that got me more interested in cooking. I have not tried many of her recipes, but it is her passion on her shows that reminded me of my mom’s passion for cooking and led me back into the kitchen. If I am going to say Giada is special I must also add my friend Gina, who actually looks a lot like Giada, is equally special. Gina introduced me to Giada and still introduces me to interesting recipes all the time. We have spent hours at times just talking about the latest dishes we have cooked and the parties we have hosted. Gina actually has her own blog now, Walk to the Mailbox, where she is documenting all of her marathons and life experiences. We visited her last fall and had a delicious meal at Sunda. You should check out Gina’s blog- it is pretty awesome.

One thing you should know about me is that I have elephant ears. I can hear everything and can eavesdrop on many conversations at once. It is a terrible but useful trait that has helped me out a lot in life. When we were waiting in line I overheard a Williams-Sonoma employee tell someone that we would not be allowed to take photos with Giada. I was disappointed but understood that it would waste a lot of time. However, we were allowed to take non flash photos from a certain distance away. Look how many little Giada fans were taking photos!

I was actually really surprised by the number of kids there- it was exciting to me to think that kids could be interested in cooking delicious and healthy meals, especially after seeing such things as the school lunches Heather posted last week. I introduced myself to everyone in the line around me as we were waiting (Hello new friends!!!) and we chatted about local restaurants, our Easter menus, and favorite Giada recipes. Put foodies in a room together and we won’t shut up!

When it was my turn to have my, ahem, 4 books signed (for friends I swear!) I asked Giada what her favorite restaurant in Philadelphia is. This was my favorite moment of the evening. Why? Because her favorite restaurant is mine as well! I don’t like to play favorites so I won’t mention it here, but suffice it to say that my review of this restaurant is coming soon, and that yes, of course it is Italian! Oh, and yes, Giada is as beautiful as she is on TV.

I hope my friends think their signed books are as special as I do. Giada’s recipes are straightforward and delicious, and this latest book focuses on traditional Italian recipes with Californian flair. Now I just need to decide which recipe to try first….

Giada will be on tour through May 8th. Please see Giada’s blog for more information on locations!

Comments

Hi Sabrina it was so nice meeting you in line yesterday! I so excited to read your blog this morning and I love it! I love love love to talk about food recipes and restaraunts as well! I love food it makes me happy! I saw on your blog your meeting on the 27th, unfortunately I work late that night but hopefully next one!I also joined on facebook too!! Yesterday was such a great day taking the train in w/my kids meeting Giada and getting her new cookbook(can’t wait to start cooking)and meeting such great people like yourself!!! So hopefully we can meet up again in the near future! Don’t forget to try Talullah’a Table out in Kennett:) Rose

Hi Sabrina! It was so fun meeting you yesterday at the signing and it definitely made the wait go faster. It was fun chatting about food and restaurants too. I have really enjoyed exploring your blog and I love you’re food philosophy of organic/local/seasonal. I’ll definitely keep reading. And now it’s time to try some recipes from Giada’s book 🙂

I’m so jealous! Giada is like my idol! Seriously I want to be her 🙂 So sad that I just saw this today because turns out she was in MA…TODAY!! So sad 🙁 She just has the greatest personality and not to mention every recipe of hers I’ve made is delicious!! Those will be AWESOME gifts! I would be psyched if it were me!